


for the glory we never had

by MageOfCole



Series: Sometimes, You Have To Burn [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Brainwashing, CC-1010 | Fox Needs A Hug, Child Abuse, Clone Trooper Reconditioning (Star Wars), Drabble, Gen, Headcanon, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kamino (Star Wars), Kamino is terrible!!, Reconditioning, Short, clone-centric, the clones deserve better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: Kote is theirs. He’s their batchmate, their squadmate, their little brother, but when the longnecks come for him, they can’t protect him.
Series: Sometimes, You Have To Burn [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857082
Comments: 44
Kudos: 265





	for the glory we never had

When the longnecks come for Kote, they want to fight. They want to stand their ground and shout, they want to bite and claw and tear at those unforgiving hands until their brother is released. They want to rip those hands away from their little brother and spit at those cold, unloving faces because Kote is  _ theirs _ . He’s their batchmate, their squadmate, their  _ brother _ .

But they can’t.

They’re frozen.

They’re afraid.

And Kote is gone, leaving them with the memories of his terrified brown eyes staring back at them, of the mask of cold acceptance that had settled over his little face. They all know what’s going to happen to him, they all know that it’s the last time they’ll ever see him.

Yet they can’t do anything.

Fox cries for the first time that night, in the comfort of his pod and into the silence. He cries, because he knows it’s his fault that Kote is gone. His little brother had done it for him; he had yelled at those trainers for  _ Fox _ , to defend him from their accusations and their cruel touches. Fox had gotten used to it - to the vicious jeers and bruising palms - he’d come to expect them. He’d been named Fox for a reason, after all, and it was something he wore with… well, not pride. Fox is a clone, a tool made to die, and tools -  _ weapons  _ \- can’t be prideful. But still… he’s proud of his name, proud of his skills, and he’d always known that the trainers hated it as much as they respected it.

He was  _ fine… _

It didn’t bother him.

He hadn’t expected anyone to fight for him though. But Kote was a force of nature; unexpected, fierce, frighteningly competent. He was among the best of them, a ruthless fighter, and viciously talented. Enough so that Jango Fett himself looked at the tiny little cadet - the  _ smallest  _ of them; it had been Fox until their little brother had been decanted, kept in the tank longer because he hadn’t been growing as quickly as his brothers - who had bared his teeth at him and called him  _ Glory _ . Kote was good, the best, too good to be decommissioned if you only looked at his scores - but that’s not enough to escape consequences, not enough that his refusal to stand down and disregard for orders to be ignored.

This had been his last chance - they all knew it, Prime had  _ warned  _ them, and they’d tried to convince him to let all those perceived slights go. It had  _ almost worked _ . They’d kept him under control when Bly had been yelled at for being too gentle, they’d held him back when Ponds was punished for breaking formation, when Wolffe was thrown to the ground a little too hard during training and dislocated his shoulder. They’d thought that they were in the clear, that Kote’s amazing scores and skills would buy him some sort of forgiveness, and that their little brother had learned to keep his mouth shut and his head down.

They’d  _ almost  _ succeeded.

But then Fox had slipped up..

A part of him knows that it wasn’t just for him, that Kote would have done the same thing for any of them had he seen anyone one else thrown to the ground like Fox had been, the bruise already forming on his face, had he heard those poisonous words aimed at any of the others. Fox had just been in the wrong place, and Kote had come down the hall at the wrong time. It had been a case of terrible luck, but the knowledge wouldn’t chase away the gnawing guilt in his stomach as he thinks about Kote’s protective fury and the blood that had bloomed from the trainer’s broken nose. It doesn’t chase away the memories of how his little brother had gone ashen when he’d realized what he’d done, and the lost, frightened eyes that had stared at the wall as he’d awaited his fate, surrounded by his brothers for the last time.

Kote had protected them.

He’d  _ always  _ been protecting them.

But they couldn’t protect him.

Not even Jango’s favour would save Kote now, and Fox would never forget the Prime’s cold, accusing stare as the scientists had led their brother away and they’d done nothing. This was  _ their  _ fault. They hadn’t been good enough, and Kote had paid the price because he’d only ever wanted to protect them. If they had been better, Kote would still be with them.

Clones were never meant for glory.

(When CC-2224 is introduced to them to fill in the gap in their squad, they all know immediately who he was; the longnecks hadn’t even bothered to change his number. It’s a threat, they all know immediately, of what should happen if they don’t get better, and Fox is smart enough to know that the Prime organized it as a punishment for taking away his favourite.

Kote is gone, and they’ve been given a symbolic hostage in his place.

They do their best, they improve, and they make sure CC-2224 never becomes Kote again. They make sure not to nurture the same desires in CC-2224 that Kote had.

CC-2224 is a blank slate. He’s bright and eager to learn, happy to please. He has no idea why none of them can look him in the eye as they drill him with the importance of obedience, with the need to follow orders and keep his mouth shut and his head down. They keep him at arm’s length, because this isn’t their little brother - it isn’t Kote. Not anymore. There’s no fire in his eyes, no burning fury, but there’s still enough of a drive to improve and succeed that makes it  _ hurt  _ to look at him.  _ Sometimes _ , they see a familiar spark of a determination to protect when CC-2224 sees them being punished, and they’re all quick to change their ways should Kote resurface and be taken away again.  _ Sometimes _ , CC-2224 does something that makes them think of their younger brother, and they all burn with a desperate terror that someone else will notice. It hurts to see CC-2224’s eager smiles fade away, it’s agony to see him grow up to be less and less like Kote, but it’s what they have to do - to protect him, and themselves. It hurts so damn much to look at Cody and see what Kote could have been if they’d been better.

So Fox doesn’t look.

Glory was never meant to be theirs.)


End file.
